


Family Portrait

by fencingfox



Series: qorDu' Means Family [4]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Pre-Episode: s07e25 Endgame (Star Trek: Voyager)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22056454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencingfox/pseuds/fencingfox
Summary: "Yes, but Mommy's going to be in a lot of pain until she gets better.""Like when I scraped'ed my knee?""Yes, like that, but ten times worse." Miral's eyes went wide.Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
Relationships: Miral Paris & B'Elanna Torres, Miral Paris & Tom Paris, Tom Paris/B'Elanna Torres
Series: qorDu' Means Family [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1467097
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Family Portrait

**Author's Note:**

> This is another of those: this might have happened before Admiral Janeway changed everything.

Tom picked up Miral from Ensign Wildman on his way to visit Sickbay. She squeezed his arm to console him. He was inconsolable. His wife was hurt, they'd said. No one told him how hurt. When he came into Sickbay, the Doctor stopped him.

"I don't think she should see her mother like this. It's not pretty." The bottom of Tom's stomach dropped out. _B'Elanna._ He knelt to Miral's height and took both of her hands in his. She looked at him expectantly.

"You're going to go with Auntie Wildman while Daddy talks to Mommy. 'Kay?" She nodded.

"'Kay. Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Is Mommy alright?" A scarier thought occurred to her. "Were you crying?" Tom forced a smile.

"Mommy's going to be alright. So will Daddy. Now go with Auntie Wildman." Samantha held a hand for Miral. Miral looked up at her and took her hand. "Love you, Miral."

"Love you too, Daddy. Give Mommy kisses."

"I will." Tom turned to go to B'Elanna's bed. He found it in a secluded corner. He noted that it was the same bed she had given birth to Miral on. It was their miracle bed. The thought made him feel a little better since B'Elanna wouldn't dare die on their miracle bed. The clamshell display was rolled over B'Elanna's torso. Her eyes were closed. Tom made to grab her hand and kiss it, only, he wasn't quite sure that what he was looking at was her hand. It was all scarred and torn. He could see muscle under the grafted skin and felt queasy.

"Mr. Paris?" Tom looked up at the Doctor, having not realized he'd followed him.

"Doc?"

"Your wife suffered multiple plasma burns. The gel packs near her station burst from excessive heat and covered her torso, arms, and upper legs in scalding bio gel."

"Is she going to be alright?"

"Yes, but I must warn you, she will be in a lot of pain until her skin can fully heal. Even the air will likely burn. I've done all that I can. I can wake her if you'd like to talk to her?"

"No, that's alright. I don't want her to be in pain."

"She should wake on her own in a few hours then. I'm sure Mrs. Wildman can take care of Miral for you until the two of you get settled."

"How long will she look like this?" He gestured to her hand.

"It depends, a few weeks maybe." _Then Miral will see this eventually._ "Ask Samantha to bring me Miral in a few minutes. I'd like to explain to her while B'Elanna's not showing how much pain she's in." Saying it made him feel like a very responsible parent for some reason. The Doctor nodded and left the couple alone.

"Oh B'Elanna," he whispered softly. "How did this happen?" He brushed her hair away from her face and bent to kiss her forehead ridges. He wanted to cry; he wanted to squeeze her to him; he wanted to scream. Instead he consoled himself by kissing B'Elanna's forehead, nose, and cheeks while brushing her hair with one hand. Miral tugged on his pants leg.

"Is Mommy?"

"Yes." He looked down at her. "It is Mommy." He softly stressed the word that she'd missed. From what he knew the poor girl was better in Klingon than Standard. He suspected she was probably better still in Spanish. They'd set it not to translate either language for her.

"Why her hand look like that?" She sounded confused and scared. He didn't blame her because he felt the same. He bent to pick her up and balanced her on his hip so she could see B'Elanna. He was grateful for the shielding because he assumed it hid the worst from view.

"Her hand looks like that because she got burnt badly. She has burns on her arms, legs, chest, and stomach."

"Will she get better?" Tom nodded.

"Yes, but Mommy's going to be in a lot of pain until she gets better."

"Like when I scraped'ed my knee?"

"Yes, like that, but ten times worse." Miral's eyes went wide. _Maybe I shouldn't have said that._

"Poor Mommy." He nodded. "Lemme kiss her better." He smiled at her naivety and brought her within range of her mother's forehead. Tom counted with amusement as Miral placed ten wet kiss right in the middle. "Did you give her kisses?"

"I did," he answered.

**=/\=**

True to the Doctor's word, B'Elanna woke up after a few hours. Tom had asked Ensign Wildman to take Miral for the night. After he explained what was going on, she was all too happy to help. Miral was excited to spend the night with Naomi. Although, Naomi was a middle schooler now, she got along well with the much younger Miral. He was the only one who heard B'Elanna's blood curdling screech when she felt the air on her skin.

The screech was mostly from the shock of feeling all the pain at once. After that happened, she could still feel the pain but it wasn't changing in intensity so it was bearable.

"Oh, Tom. What happened?"

"The Doctor said that you were attending to several bio packs when they overheated and exploded. You have plasma burns over much of the front of your body. He had to graft some skin on you."

"Miral?"

"Miral saw and understands as much as a two-year-old can understand. She gave you ten kisses to get better." B'Elanna started to chuckle, but stopped when the pain increased more.

"Why ten?"

"I may or may not have told her that you'd be hurting ten times more than she had been with a skinned knee."

"You didn't." Her eyes narrowed.

"I did. She took it pretty well considering."

"Considering I look like Frankenstein's monster?"

"Yeah." He smiled. She'd read it then. She lifted her hand to rest on Tom's knee. Her palm was fairly undamaged.

"When can I go back?"

"I don't know. The Doctor didn't say before he left." He looked up. "Computer, activate Emergency Medical Hologram." The Doctor shimmered into existence and stated his introductory one-liner. "How long does B'Elanna need to stay in Sickbay?"

"Long enough for me to know if her body accepts the grafts: one week."

"One week," B'Elanna repeated. One week without holding Miral. One week without giving her a bath. One week without getting her ready in the morning. One week without making Miral's favorite breakfast. She closed her eyes to stop any tears. _When did I get so reliant on her and Tom for my happiness?_ She supposed it was the day Miral was born.

"I'm sorry to say: visiting hours are over, Mr. Paris. B'Elanna needs her rest if she is to go home at the end of a week's time." Tom nodded. He stood and bent to kiss B'Elanna. She was glad her face wasn't burnt. His affection gave her a lifeline that she willingly clung to.

**=/\=**

"Miral, no!" The quarter-Klingon was scribbling on the walls with markers. _How did she even get those?_ She looked up at him in shock from being caught. He sighed as he picked his daughter up. She was driving him mad. It didn't help that B'Elanna wasn't here to help out. She was still recovering in Sickbay where the Doctor could administer her pain killers. They'd decided that staying would be better for her and Miral. He half wanted to ask the Doctor for a sedative for Miral, dose her, and then pass out as well. She'd taken to waking him in the middle of the night several times like she had as an infant. He knew it was because she was worried about her mother. She was too young to understand death, but she read his feelings as well as a Betazoid and knew things weren't good.

B'Elanna had rejected about half of her grafted skin. The Doctor had to operate to regraft skin to her. He was frustrated because her unique human/Klingon DNA made it difficult to grow skin for her. She was running a low fever when Tom last visited. She was so tired all the time that she could only handle Miral for a few minutes. Tom thought that the decreased time with her mother was the reason for Miral's misbehavior. Hell, he wanted to throw a fit himself.

"Can we see Mommy?"

"No. Mommy needs to sleep so she can see us sooner." She pouted.

"I want to see Mommy." Tom saw the warning signs. "I want to see Mommy!" She started to bawl. Tom's frayed nerves screeched at her behavior. He wanted to shake her or yell at her. Instead he bounced himself lightly up and down to soothe her. He lay her on his bed and cozied up next to her on B'Elanna's side. He massaged the top of her forehead above her ridges with the pad of his thumb gently. The motion always calmed her. After a few circles, she calmed down. "Why isn't Mommy get better?"

"She is. Her body didn't like some of the skin so that's why it's taking longer than I told you."

"I wish she better _now_." He bit back a retort about wishing she'd drop her bad behavior _now_. Instead he sighed and pulled his daughter to him.

"I know. Me too." Miral eventually fell asleep in her father's arms. Tom got out of bed and picked her up to place in her bed. Once she was settled under her covers, he returned to his bed and lay on top of the covers staring at the ceiling.

He didn't pray normally. He stopped after Caldik Prime actually, thinking he didn't deserve the help. But he was a changed man and a desperate one at that.

"If you're listening, God, _please_ help my wife heal. Her daughter needs her. I need her, too." He fell asleep soon after, unsure if any God heard him. He hoped that maybe some Q did at least. The brief thought that Q probably were this universe's gods and goddesses drifted past his consciousness before he fell asleep. He woke up briefly when he heard Miral crying softly in the other room. Feeling sorry for her, he got out of bed and fetched his daughter. He brought her still shuddering body into the room and put her under the covers before he joined her. She curled to his body, still crying and he rubbed her back gently until she relaxed. He also had tears in his eyes when he fell asleep, but wasn't woken again that night.

"Mommy here!" Miral jumped on Tom to wake him. He grunted as the air in his lungs exited quickly.

"What?" The Doctor told him that she needed to be in Sickbay for another week at least. But there she was, standing in the doorway with some gauze wrapped around her hands and probably her torso as well under the Sickbay blues. The light from the corridor formed a beautiful hazy halo around her. Miral rushed forward, but Tom stopped her, worried she'd hurt B'Elanna. She sensed his reason for grabbing her.

"Can I hug, Mommy?" 

"Sure, just not too tight. Okay?" She knelt as Tom released their little tornado. Miral went up to B'Elanna and hugged her carefully. B'Elanna only winced slightly. Tom mouthed 'Sorry' to her. She mouthed 'Worth it' back to him.

"Are you better, Mommy?" He had the same question. Tom rose to his feet and closed the distance to kiss his wife, careful not to touch more of her than he needed to. He was surprised when she pulled him to her chest.

"Almost. The Doctor said my fever is gone and the grafts are holding. He thought I'd heal better at home."

"I drew you picture." Miral went over to the bulkhead that she'd been drawing on before. B'Elanna glanced at her husband. He only shrugged. He hadn't had time to clean the marker, hadn't even looked at the picture. He went up behind them to look at the colorful scribbles, suddenly recalling from a parenting book that drawing is therapeutic for children. He felt bad for yelling now.

Miral pointed to a brown and red scribble that was wider than it was tall, like it was laying down. "That you get hurt." She pointed to another group of scribbles. The same brown and red scribble rested in the middle. A short brown scribble was described as her while the tall blue and yellow scribble was Tom. "That us visit you. Oh, I need draw another." She reached for a marker.

"Miral," Tom warned.

"But it not finished," she lamented.

"It's fine, Tom." Miral looked at her mother. She was always so nice. "She won't break anything. Go ahead, Miral." B'Elanna nodded her head to her daughter. They watched Miral deface the bulkhead with a tall brown scribble, a short brown scribble and a tall blue/yellow scribble standing together. "That us. Togeffer" As she spoke, she drew a shaky house shape around the three of them in black. Tom smiled. He liked seeing his family happy. He gave a soft thanks to whoever happened to be listening.

**=/\=**

_Miral doesn't look too good,_ B'Elanna thought as she pulled her out of the warm bath. It was such a relief to be able to fall back into these treasured routines. Still, it worried B'Elanna that Miral looked yellow despite her lightly browned skin. And normally, Miral liked to play during bath time. This time, she could hardly keep her eyes open. Had so much changed since she'd been hurt?

"Tom?" She heard her husband answer with a loud grunt. "Would you come here and look at Miral? I think she's sick." Tom's stomach tightened. _My daughter? Sick?_ Tom walked into the bathroom and knelt on his knees next to his daughter. B'Elanna had placed her to sit on the soft bath rug while she dried her skin.

"She looks yellow? Or is that just me?"

"No, she's yellow." Tom tapped his commbadge.

"Paris to the Doctor."

"Yes, Mr. Paris? You aren't here to tell me you can't go on shift tomorrow?"

"No, I hope not."

"You hope not?" B'Elanna gave him a look that reminded him why he was calling.

"Never mind. Can you take a look at Miral? She's yellow."

"Yes, bring her straight away," the Doctor said, suddenly all business. B'Elanna lay the drowsy Miral down to put her feet into the fuzzy onesie Tom had replicated for her. The outfit had young women in splendid dresses printed on it. He'd told her that no self-respecting toddler didn't own a onesie when he'd done so. She had shook her head at him and now Miral had three onesies. She had to admit that her daughter was very cute in them, especially the one with the feet that made her look like a speckled targ. That one even had felt spines on the back.

Tom helped the sleepy Miral put her arms through the sleeves and B'Elanna zipped her up. He picked up his daughter who leaned against him lethargically. He rubbed her back with concern as he made his way to Sickbay with B'Elanna. He wondered if this was a delayed shock reaction to almost loosing her mother. The thought chilled him.

The Doctor was waiting for them and gestured for them to place Miral on a nearby biobed. Tom did just that so that her legs lay flat against the biobed. He kept a hand at her back. Her eyes drooped. The Doctor scanned a tricorder over Miral's small body.

"Ah, just as I suspected." He closed the tricorder. "Miral has jaundice. When did you first notice a change in her behaviors?" B'Elanna spoke up with motherly worry.

"About two days ago. She didn't want to eat her favorite breakfast: banana pancakes." B'Elanna had learned how to make them by scratch without the replicator except for basic ingredients as an ode to her grandmother. Miral normally _loved_ them. But she didn't touch them that day. B'Elanna ate her daughter's when it was clear the next day that Miral still didn't care for them.

"Yes, loss of appetite is one of the symptoms. Tom, I'm surprised you didn't notice sooner. Jaundice was one of the first diseases I had you read up on since it is a threat to nearly every known species." Tom looked embarrassed. He hadn't read the first few PADDs that closely. He regretted that now.

"Will she be alright?" B'Elanna asked as she ran her fingers through her daughter's dark hair. It had been a soft blond when she was born and B'Elanna worried she'd be the only one with a blond Klingon, but after a few weeks, the blond fell away to a dark brown like her own.

"She will, but I need her here for a few days to ensure that. Jaundice is very serious for young Klingons. They have twice as many red blood cells so they produce twice as much bilirubin. At her age, her second liver hasn't had the time to develop properly. On top of that, stress can make the symptoms more pronounced. Likely she's been struggling for a while." Tom wished he'd known. He'd have been kinder to her over the course of B'Elanna's treatment. Now he couldn't help but feel responsible. He leaned toward B'Elanna, but didn't notice until their shoulders brushed. She looked up at him sympathetically.

"Do whatever you need to do, Doc. Just make her better," Tom directed. He felt upset that his baby girl was sick and there was nothing that he could do about it. He squeezed Miral's arm to let her know he cared. _If anything happens to her...._ He looked at B'Elanna and knew that the same thought was running through her mind as well. Oddly, sharing it with each other comforted them both. The feeling of family he felt reminded him of the marker drawing still on the bulkhead near their bed. They were a family. They'd get through this together.

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time, there was a writer who had a NaNo they wanted to get done but every time she tried to look at it she got a sense of apprehension.... So instead of working on that, she worked on cleaning up an old story instead.
> 
> I hoped you enjoyed this!


End file.
